uk brexit border worries robertson pkg_00024019.jpg
Brexit brings worries for those on the border
03:31 - Source: CNN

Editor’s Note: Nic Robertson is CNN’s international diplomatic editor. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

CNN  — 

The United Kingdom is edging towards what might turn out to be the ultimate act of involuntary downsizing undertaken by any nation in history.

For sure, the Soviet Union lost its satellite states as communism crumbled, leaving Russia a relic of its former glory.

But Theresa May, the Prime Minister, is currently nudging closer to sacrificing national limbs so the body, her cherished Withdrawal Agreement, might survive.

The point is not lost on diplomats at the European Union’s central command in Brussels, Belgium.

Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte seized on the idea last week, posting a memorable meme depicting a limbless swordsman from Monty Python’s eponymous movie, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

John Cleese plays the Black Knight, who meets his match in King Arthur.

Cleese’s character is determined to press ahead on his chosen road in quest of the mythical grail, whereby Arthur swiftly defenestrates him of his limbs.

A bloody and somewhat shorter – but still chipper – Cleese chides his attacker: “It’s just a flesh wound … We’ll call it a draw … Come back here … I’ll bite your legs off.”

While May is unlikely to indulge in actual bodily harm, the Brexit deal she has struck with the EU and her path towards it has shorn her of political support.

Yet Rutte’s Black Knight meme may not be a comment on May’s leadership style but a frank assessment of the political dysmorphia that currently threatens to dismember the United Kingdom.

In Scotland, where 62% of voters used the Brexit referendum to state unequivocally they want Scotland to remain part of the EU, the chaotic Westminster process is growing calls for a second independence referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, or SNP, has been angling for a reason to go back to the voters since losing the last referendum 55% to 45% in 2014.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May at PMQs, London. She described the UK parliament of "indulging Europe". CREDIT: parliament.tv
UK requests EU to delay Brexit until June 30
00:44 - Source: CNN

And although May’s Conservative Party stormed back in 2017 from an almost complete electoral eclipse at the hands of the SNP north of the border, Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP’s 35 Westminster members of Parliament, never misses a chance tell May that Scotland “will not be dragged out of the EU” by English politicians.

Were it not for the popular Scottish Conservative Party leader, Ruth Davidson, May might well have been another dozen members of Parliament down and unable to govern, even with the support of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP.

Conventional wisdom is that Westminster would need to sign off on another Scottish vote for independence.

For now, this is all just scheming in Holyrood, Scotland’s seat of government.

In the cut and thrust of the Brexit chaos, the UK’s political class has forgotten about the real constitutional crisis brewing around the nation.

Twenty-one years ago, the Belfast or Good Friday agreement began to lower, if not bury, the pro-Unionist, pro-Irish hatchets that carved three decades of violence into the island’s ledger.

Brexit has brought it all back to the surface.

Pro-British Unionists reacted angrily to pro-Irish Sinn Fein politicians at a Saint Patrick’s Day parade in New York, carrying a banner demanding the English get out of Ireland. Sinn Fein has never been shy about rallying support for a United Ireland. But this year, thanks to Brexit, the stakes have been raised.

Northern Ireland voted 56% in favor of remaining in the EU. In Catholic-majority neighborhoods, such as Foyle, that number hit 80%.

Irish Nationalists feel they are suffering a double body blow.

Firstly, English Nationalists are stealing their aspirations towards a United Ireland, brought closer by remaining in the EU, of which the Irish Republic is part.

Secondly, the members of Parliament with most sway over May are Northern Ireland’s arch pro-British unionists, the DUP .

May’s weekend machinations to bring the DUP back into line, with their costly confidence and supply commitment given in 2017, are rumored to include giving the DUP a greater say in Brexit negotiations.

If May were to concede, it would be an undoubted red rag for the SNP’s Sturgeon, who has also demanded representation and would quite happily lock constitutional horns over the issue.

In a landscape lacking political giants, the inability of Parliament to get a head-up look at the real dangers coming should alarm all of us.

For Parliament’s pygmies, mired in the cozy mulch of revisionist revelry, it’s time to empty the stable and let the grown-ups get to work raking out the muck, clearing a less odious path forward.